Hugh Howey Explains The Need For Authors To Give Away Their Books

Posted at 10:31AM Saturday 12 Apr 2014

Many publishing industry professionals caution against giving away free content, as they feel it reduces the value in the eyes of the reader. Likewise, surveys have shown that low price points for books make readers respond negatively, as if thinking to themselves, "How good can it be? Even the author didn't think it was worth a whole dollar."

But Howey's point is that the only truly undervalued books are the ones that no one reads because they can't find them. In this time of difficulty for book discovery, offering your content–especially backlist content–to readers is a way to entice them into getting to know the rest of your list.